Sketch Exclusive: December 2021

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This is a Sketch Exclusive, a Patreon-exclusive summary of stuff from the month, interesting things I just can’t help but share, and other ramblings!

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Wow, it's really the end of 2021 and to be honest I don't know where it all went. I vaguely remember drawing some stuff in early spring but now Santa Claus has already come and gone and you're telling me tomorrow is 2022? (feels like I'm still stuck in 2018 and the world's moved on without me) Can't wrap my head around it, let's think about other, happier things.

A Year in Review:

This year has been one of the most productive I've had in my entire life! There were, of course little blips, such as that time I almost purchased a new drawing tablet instead of paying my student loans, or that time I didn't use a reference on a few drawings when I got extra lazy... Of course, self-teaching is a pain in the butt and I'd sell all of my co-workers for a chance at art school or manga school, but I digress.

Overall, I've:

• Joined DeviantArt and Twitter, making new friends and growing my collection
• Drawn at least 17 transformation sequences
• Completed at least 14 commissions - these really helped keep that student loan in check
• Studied drawing on my own so much I lost count of the hours, but it's probably double what I spent actually drawing.
• Collected 6 artbooks/art instruction books

Coming Up Next...

I've started on the Dakimakura poll results! I'm pretty excited to show you, and I hope it'll be done shortly!

What's Cooking in the Test Kitchen

This isn't my expression of love towards Caillou... this is my test kitchen! I started to use this to prototype and refine things before committing to them. Here are some improvements I'm currently working on:

• Thinner, neater lines
• More refined shading
• More appealing bodies

Brush on a bias has been unfortunately made defunct by a new brush I made that is more sensitive to pressure and does thinner lines easier. As much as I loved brush on a bias, this is just a testament to how fast my preferences change throughout this art journey :( 

I feel like I'm stagnating and there's a lot about my own artwork at the moment that I'd like to change and some things I think I will need to brute force to unlearn. I won't make a new year's resolution for it though, because I feel like it should be ongoing and not like weight loss resolutions that are dropped after 2 weeks because junk food is too delicious...

Onwards to 2022!